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"Keeping it real."

This is the worst hip-hop slogan ever coined. It's broadest usage, meaning "be honest," is harmless but banal. It's more pointed usage, meaning "keep it representative of lower-socioeconic class black people" is a very unhealthy way to think about the world. Every experience, every way of life, is just as "real" as any other. Insisting on some specific kind of reality as being truer or more pure than others is a recipe for stasis and intolerance. As the great jazz pianist Less McCann said, "Tryin' make it real—compared to what?!"